Re: Losing Weight with Starscream
 

Finally back down into the 180s after my vacation back home. yesterday afternoon I was 189. and that was after 2 big meals and no morning constitutional:noon

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Congrats Earl!:tu
I'm ready for tomorrow's check in! Looking good for this week!

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242! Only four more pounds to hit my short term goal. That's a loss of 7lbs this week!:banger:wo:wo

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Congrats Andy. That's awesome.

I gained about 8lbs on vacation last week. Damn that food in New Orleans. Already lost 4 of it though, so not so bad. Got me some new running shoes yesterday. Going to break them in tonight.

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Vacations both are great and they suck! Glad you had a good time. Have fun with those running shoes.;) Just make sure you enjoy it if you are going to do it on a regular basis.

I'm gonna gain next week unless I exercise myself to death. After Easter, I'm gonna drink a whole bunch!:al:r

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l just weighed in this morning, 210! 85lbs so far.

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The plan is to train for a 5k run. I just need to pick one coming up in the next month or so and register. I'm already walking 2.5-3miles 4-5 times a week, so transitioning to running shouldn't hopefully be that strenuous.


Congrats. I'm hoping to get down to that point myself. I had set a goal of 225, but I think that'll be temporary. I guess it all depends on how I feel.

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AWESOME!:tu
Awesome goal! Get 'er done (to quote an annoying pretend redneck)!

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250.6 this morning for my official weekly weigh-in. That's 1.8lbs up from my pre-vacation weight but down 6.5 from when I got home Monday.

Went for my first run/jog last night. Didn't push it too hard since it was the first time, new shoes and I'm just not in that great of shape (yet). Not bad. Did 2.26mi in 32.5mins, of which 8mins was jogging. Walked a bit, jogged, repeated. I'm concerned the ankle won't take it though. I've already had 4 operations to remove bone chips, don't really need a 5th. I'll keep an eye on it though. It's not bad this morning, just a little pain but that could be from just the exertion.

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Easy on that ankle, Bob. Don't stop, but be careful with it.
Did you turn on it funny or anything, or do you just think it's soreness?

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Just feels like soreness right now. Doesn't help I'm missing bone/cartilidge in the joint. I'm going to listen to my body though and not press it.

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Congratulations, gentlemen!!! :tu
My laxative is starting to lax, the barometer is coming up, and I feel tons better.
I plan to poop 20 more times and move stuff from the garage to the basement today. :tu

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TMI Scott! :r

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Good idea.:tu
Have fun with that...:np


Just kidding about the pics.:tu

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How we doing today, gentlemen?

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morning andy
weighted in this morning @ 183

2 yrs ago I was over 200 and not very happy with myself- very pleased to be back somewhere reasonable


keep up the good work fellas

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I think I was up around 213 this morning. I drank a crazy amount of fluids yesterday to replace all I lost while I was down, so it's to be expected. Now that I'm back up and around, the weight should start coming down again. I'm still not eating much of anything at all, just what I have to. This high carb/low potassium restriction makes it tough to find anything to eat but rice and noodles, and I very seldom eat any meat or anything with fat. That's just because meat has lots of potassium, and I can't tolerate it ( unless I want to spend a few days in bed.) :D

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Doing good here Andy. 249.4 this morning. Liking how I'm feeling too. Energy and mood is way up. Why didn't I do this years ago?

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Thought I'd throw this out there for anyone who may not be doing it yet, but definitely invest the $20-25 in a good digital kitchen scale. I now portion out all my meals/snacks. It really lets you understand how much you're eating. Like the handful of spaghetti I would grab from the box, which was usually x2+ the normal serving size. Now it's either the 2oz or less per serving. Another item I help use to track my meals is a simple excel spreadsheet I made up. I enter all the ingredients and the nutritional info, plug in how many servings it makes and presto, I have the nutritional info for that exact meal. Lastly I use a carb counter program for my phone that I then enter all my meal/snack info into. I need to watch the carbs, but it has all of the other info too so you can see exactly how much you eat a day. With the healthier choices I"m making food wise, I eat like a fiend and still only take in ~2000 cals a day.

Went for my 2nd walk/run today. Only got 21 mins in because of the weather, but still got 1.52 miles done. And the best news is my ankle isn't feeling any worse for wear. :tu

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Energy and mood go hand in hand for me. I feel good and have a bit more energy as of late.:tu

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I gave up alcohol for Lent this year. I've done my 40 days (by not indulging on Sundays as most protestants do), so I'm drinking a bit tonight. Easter might set me back a bit this week, but hopefully the camping trip I'm taking for spring break will give me enough exercise to make up for it.

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This was me, may 2009 (with Smokin Gator)

http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/w...IMG_2964-1.jpg

this is me, april 2011

http://i523.photobucket.com/albums/w...b/IMG_0039.jpg

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HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT IS REALLY IMPRESSIVE. Congrats on the progress

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I wouldn't have recognized you, Ferdinand. Wow! Congrats on all your dedication and work!:tu

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Nice job Ferdie! :tu

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Did some more walking/running today. Ankle's still holding up well. I think the weight loss I've done before this has helped tremendously. Was able to run more this time than the two previous sessions. Still can't string more than a half mile at a time, but I'm happy with the progress so far.

Had to go buy some new clothes a couple weeks ago. My old clothes were really baggy. So much so tightening the belt would cinch up so much of the waistband, it was a bit uncomfortable. Plus just looked funny. I'm also no longer having to shop in the fat mans section. :tu

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Basic training graduation
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photo...30733_1074.jpg

240lbs
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photo...090751_748.jpg

after my last deployment. about 185lbs
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photo...87505_5070.jpg

Getting back down to 165-170 is probably the hardest thing I've had to do. getting up to 240 was no problem at all. Lots of beer drinking and midnight food runs. working my butt off(literally) to get back to where i was.

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Going up is easy!:r Hard coming back down, but it's always worth it, right?

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I'll have to weigh in a day early this week b/c I'm not taking my scale on my camping trip with me. No gain so far, but tomorrow will tell.

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I was 212 this morning. Still can't crack the 10 barrier. It'll come, I'm just impatient. :D

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That's my problem as well, Scott. I'm impatient.:D

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209 this morning. :tu
That was a real nice barrier to break. It'll be near impossible to hold it for a few days, but it'll ultimately stick. I have to eat lots of carbs today, so we'll see what happens. Noodles or rice for dinner and some kind of cereal for lunch, I suppose.

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Congrats Scott. That's gotta be a great feeling.

I did a weigh in a few days ago and was at 245. Let's see if I can keep that up. I am staying under 250 throughout the day though and it's still slowly coming off. Today I'll get in a good walk to burn some calories. Did 3.8mi in just under 56min on Sunday. I was boggie-ing.

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Well done, Bob!!! :tu

It's nice to see a nice pattern taking hold, right? That way you know you're on to something that's going to be permanent. Especially if the "pattern" or new way you do stuff isn't real hard to do, or maintain.
I've watched, and when guys say "I'm going to change everything I do to make this weight come off", ya just know it's going to be too hard to maintain. It's easier to just change a couple little things at a time so they can be incorporated into our lives without a bunch of drama. That way they're likely to become habit.
They say it takes 30 days to develop a new habit. Do you think that seems about right, with the way you're making changes?

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Yea, seems every week the pattern shifts downward by a pound or two. It's amazing to see how much you can fluctuate in any given day.

You're correct that it's easiest to change just a couple of things than trying to go whole hog. I had started about two years ago with just changing my diet, removing processed foods, adding more veggies/fruits, organic naturally raised proteins. With just that change I lost ~30lbs in two years. Over the last few months I added in walking along with cutting back on the carbs. That's allowed me to take off the next ~25lbs. So I would say you're right about the 30 days to develop a habit. I'm pissed at myself if I skip a walk (which I've rarely done).

I wanted to ask about hydration. What percentage do you shoot for? I'm assuming you're using one of the scales that measures your hydration level. Mine says I'm at 48%, where the manual said 55-60% is optimal. I know taking off more weight will increase the percentage, but until then how can I increase it? I"m already drinking 8-12 glasses a day. I don't think I can do much more though, i'd be p*ssing all the time.

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Bob, I don't use any scales or aids or any of that. My wife has been into aerobics, running, lifting, all that stuff for years. She works out every day and runs every day when the weather is decent. She can deliver real simple answers to any of my questions.
Lots of the things I do make her cringe. :D
I have a very rare neuromuscular disorder that I'm treating for, so I take lots of meds. My body dictates what I can and can't do on a momentary basis. Right now, one of my meds is a diuretic, but it doesn't act as a diuretic because my muscles are sucking it all up. I've always gone to the bathroom a ridiculous amount of times every day, so that doesn't bother me anyways.
Right now I'm also on a very low potassium, high carb diet. I subsist on noodles, rice, and water, basically. Meat has a lot of potassium, and in the last year I've developed a natural aversion to it because if I eat a steak it causes me incredible pain.
Weird, right?
The easy answer is I eat weird stuff regularly (in small portions, cause usually I don't like it) and I drink constantly. I'm never without a drink by my side. Sometimes I drink grape Aquafina, lots of times I just drink filtered water.

That said, I listen to my body. If I'm thirsty, I drink. I trust what it's telling me a lot more than what a book says, but that's cause I'm so screwed up. I absolutely have to get lots of water and carbs, and I cannot fast or I get the same results as the steak I mentioned.
I suppose I have an unfair advantage with my health and all, but all the changes I've made, I made slowly.

The best I could suggest is maybe try drinking more water in the early evening (after work)? That way it won't be such an issue. I am slap full of water all the time, so much so that I slosh. It isn't an issue because I'm home all the time, but I can see where it'd drive a guy nuts.

Re: Losing Weight with Starscream
 

Awesome to see all the discussion in here.:tu

Bob, I don't know anything about hydration other than I try to get 6-8 glasses of water a day.:)
Scott, I agree 110% that habits are formed slowly (30 days sounds about right).

Weigh-in is tomorrow for me and it looks like I'll be up a couple of pounds from last week. I've maintained 242 for two weeks.

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:tu

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Andy,one thing I noticed from this thread is that alcohol is a major diet enemy. I'm super-blessed, because I don't drink. I don't have that evening/weekend fun monkey on my back, ya know?
My sweet baby has been really watching her calories (not that she doesn't always) because she wants to lose a few pounds, I'm guessing. I don't think she needs to, she looks amazing, but she's gonna do what she's gonna do, ya know. :)
Anyways, she likes her wine in the evening/before bed, and she likes to get tuned up a bit at family day on Sundays. She has very much slowed down how much she drinks, and I haven't seen Bailey's in her coffee for a long, long time.
I wasn't making that point AT you, I'm just talking to you. Sorry, I should have said that, I'm making you out to be a drunk, lol. :D
Anyways, you'd mentioned a number of times in the past how bad the alcohol can sabotage a diet, and I just wanted to throw that recent personal experience out there to add some empirical evidence to your alcohol mentionings before I forgot about it. :tu

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Hey just started doing some workign out, and I am trying to eat better..not really a diet. But I do need to lose weight. I am doing the insanity workout, I really need someone to keep me accountable. Hopefully I can keep this up. I am 205 (5'8") with cholestoral around 300...my bp is great. Doc says the cholestoral is from being overweight.

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100% correct, Scott (I may even be a drunk:r). I spent my spring break with the alcohol and got it out of my system for a while in order to stay on track. Had to have a bit of fun since I gave it up completely for 40+ days.
Cholesterol sucks, Kirk. Keep us updated on your progress.
What is the insanity workout?

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Its one of those infomercials like the P90X but its 90% Cardio with exercises you do using your own body weight..no equipment. They call it Max interval training, interval training on roids.

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Kirk, what were your HDL and LDL?

Exercise is only one aspect to lowering your cholesterol. Diet is another. If you have a smartphone, look into a program that you can use to track your meals. I use CarbMaster for the Iphone since I need to track my carbs, but it tracks everything else. It's amazing to see what you're really eating once you start entering it in. Once you get an idea of where the bulk of your calories are coming from, you can make adjustments from there if necessary.

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243 today. Up one pound, which is about what I expected. Getting back to my routines starting today and my goal is to drop four this week. Staying focused is my primary objective this week.

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Keep us informed of your results and how it's all working out, will ya, Kirk?
If you find it works, even if you modify it, it may help other guys here. :tu

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Just as I guessed, the 209 didn't last long. I had to eat yesterday, didn't have any choice. I didn't eat a lot, spread out small meals over the course of the day. Today I'll probably eat once around dinner and something late. The menu looks like rice and pop-tarts. :r
Mama comes home today, so she'll make me eat all kinds of stuff I don't want to eat until she has to leave for work again. I think we have to travel down to Washington on Friday, so we'll likely go out to eat. I've slowly stopped eating when we go out to eat, too, but I always get to try everyone else's stuff. :D

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I let you know when I get tested again, not sure. I talked with the doc about what I ate, and he was pretty sure it was hereditary and weight related. I am trying to eat better...plus 1400mg of Fish Oil and 2400mg of Red Yeast Rice a day.

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Kirk, I can eat bacon, eggs and butter dipped steak 24/7, let my weight go, and my cholestorol stays great. Apparently that's hereditary, too? I never did understand that stuff, but Lisa made me get checked. When it was all good, she couldn't believe it. Me neither, really. :r

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I"m curious to hear how the RYR works for you. I've thought about taking it myself. Another good item to add is flax seed. Buy the whole seed and grind up in a spice grinder. I mixed some this morning with some natural peanut butter and bulgur wheat. Lots of protein, fiber and good fats.

Sure Scott, rub it in. :r

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It's a wasted talent, I don't eat any kind of meat at all anymore (because it all has so much potassium, and I can't have potassium).
You watch. My whole diet changed and next time I get tested my numbers will be off the charts and they'll wonder how I'm alive cause my cholesterol is so high. :r